Morrisons to give £10m to food banks during coronavirus crisis

The grocer, which is also the UK’s largest fresh food manufacturer, will operate its bakery, egg and fruit and vegetable packing sites for an extra hour every day in order to make, prepare and pack the food needed to restock food banks.

Morrisons also plans to send deliveries of ambient food, including pasta, bread and tinned products, to its supermarkets to be passed on to their local food bank.

The supermarket giant is also raising purchase limits on certain food lines, or removing them altogether, to make it easier for shoppers to donate to food banks.

Morrisons is installing “local” drop-off points to make it easier for shoppers to donate food products. Donation hubs in Morrisons in-store cafes will help collect additional products for food banks.

The grocer’s boss David Potts said: “As a food maker and shopkeeper we are uniquely placed to help. We know food banks are finding life very difficult and running our manufacturing sites for an extra hour each day to help restock them is the right decision at this time.”

Over the weekend, Morrisons’ discount rival Lidl said it would donate thousands of bags of fruit and vegetables to NHS workers. It is working with the charity Royal Voluntary Service to help ensure those on the front line maintain a healthy diet.

Hampers of produce will be delivered to hospitals across the UK so that staff can take them home following their shifts.

Lidl UK boss Christian Härtnagel said: “We are so grateful to the NHS and all of its staff for their hard work every day to help keep the nation safe.

“This is our small gesture to say thank you and help provide NHS staff, who may not be able to get into store regularly for basic groceries, with fresh fruit and vegetables.

“We hope that, through working with Royal Voluntary Service to donate these bags to hospitals, we can help make a difference to their daily life.”

Ocado, meanwhile, has ordered 100,000 coronavirus testing kits for its staff to help keep food supplies flowing throughout the crisis.

The online grocer said it wanted to test all of its staff regularly to ensure that its customers were receiving home deliveries safely.

Ocado has paid £1.5m for the testing kits but said it would hand them over to the NHS should they be required.

“Ocado is clear that the NHS takes priority in the national effort to combat coronavirus and kits will be made available to the NHS if and where required,” the company said.

Ocado said testing its staff would ensure the business could continue “working round the clock” at a time when demand has rocketed tenfold.

“No matter how hard we work, we do not have enough capacity to serve these unprecedented levels of demand,” Ocado said.

“Our priorities are the safety and wellbeing of our customers, colleagues and the community.”